After braving years of backlash, techno's first crossover star, Moby, spins back to his DJ roots

CP: Yet you've been accused of wanting to be too easy to market. In the past you've talked about how DJ culture became wrapped up in anonymity at the expense of pleasure. Do you still feel that way?

MOBY: If DJs and musicians want to be anonymous, well, fine. That's their prerogative. But that doesn't mean there's a right and wrong way to do things. One person can choose to be anonymous, another can choose to do 8,000 interviews and have their picture taken. That doesn't make one better or worse. They're just different ways of approaching things.

CP: Now that the backlash you endured four years ago seems to be dying down, has there been more openness toward you within the techno community?

"Part of the musician's job description is to be a little bit self-indulgent at times": Moby

MOBY: Yeah, a little bit. I was one of the people in the beginning willing to be a quasi-public figure. I didn't even think in terms of selling records, I just thought that was what musicians did. I like doing interviews and photo shoots and tours, so why not? It's a way of communicating with people. But I do think I've done a lot of things and gotten shit for them, and then someone else has done the same thing a year later and been celebrated for it.

CP: Would doing a straight dance record be out of the question for you at this point?

MOBY: I'm hoping after Play runs its course to put out a DJ-mix version of it and do a DJ tour behind that. The nice thing about DJing is that it's so easy. When I go on tour, we have to rent a tour bus; there's eight people I tour with and a truckload of equipment. I love it, but it's a real production. DJing, you just show up with a box of records and play for a couple hours.